A majority of pet groomers enter the pet grooming industry following careers in other fields. Their passion to work with pets and express their creativity drives them to earn a living as a pet groomer. At one time a majority of groomers entered the industry following military duty. Four factors changed that trend in the 1990s and continue to do so today. They are 1) retail superstores with grooming departments, 2) the Internet, 3) expanding educational opportunities for groomers, and 4) mobile grooming.
 

In the early 1980s we wrote articles predicting pet superstores would grow in number and add grooming services. We were bluntly met with jabs at our credibility, even laughter. We were confident and based our opinion on 20 years of field experience in grooming up to that time. Experience and participation in your industry bolsters your intuition, and along with some patience time proved us right.

At one time pet groomers could only go to pet retail trade shows. There were few or no grooming trade shows like today. Grooming competitions served as entertainment for non-groomers at the retail shows. They were exciting and we remember the excitement and flash bulbs going off adding to the glitz of these events.

One good way to learn who groomers are is to attend a grooming trade show. We strongly urge you to support them. What career seeker wouldn’t be excited to attend their first grooming show? It like Disneyland for kids. Everyone benefits from the educational opportunities can keep you busy through an entire weekend. Our trade shows have increased the respect of the retail sector for pet grooming.

Respect is important because the industry didn’t have anywhere near the amount of respect it does today just a few decades ago. In the 1960s Madeline Ogle would remind her contacts in the retail sector of the importance of pet grooming to their retail sales. She would ask, “How many pet owners would own dogs and cats if they had to groom their pets? Doesn’t a reduction in pet ownership mean a likewise reduction in retail sales?” She was right then, and now. Pet grooming continues to bolster retail sales growth. Today’s pet superstores add grooming departments to increase foot traffic through their retail displays, and the result is growth of retail sales.

Diversity of the Industry

Today many pet groomers don’t understand that pet superstores have been a boon to career seekers, and to the industry. A large sector of contemporary American consumers began to view grooming services as a more respectable service when they saw the corporate stores add grooming departments.

It’s positive for the public to see a growing number of pet grooming signs in commercial strip centers or “box stores.” It verifies the public’s perception of grooming as a traditional purchase they should consider, and not groom pets themselves.

More important to you as a career seeker may be the fact that adding grooming to pet superstores opened new career paths. Today most of the superstores offer grooming training options. Experienced grooming managers can earn some of the best wages and benefits in the grooming industry. The lack of benefits offered by many independents is a real detriment to thousands of career seekers.

The Internet has played the most important role in recruiting people into the grooming industry. In fact, the Internet is vital to groomer recruitment. The majority of career seekers taking PetGroomer.com surveys indicated that the Internet was their primary source of grooming career information.

It makes sense because you must understand that even today there are states without a single grooming school, and even populous states have as few as two or three schools.

When career seekers find PetGroomer.com and its resources leading to hundreds of other grooming websites, it’s like discovering treasure. We dedicate PetGroomer.com to career seekers as much to groomers because thousands of them told us they were frustrated trying to find local grooming career information. Once they found it, they made the transition to grooming. Time and again we have helped architects, bankers, insurance agents, real estate agents, data entry key persons, secretaries, word processors, nurses and salespersons leave traditional employment and become what they love being most, pet groomers.

We believe that our industry will move closer to some form of vocational licensing or alternative simply because a large percentage of career seekers entering from other professional fields, know it would have made their entry more readily understood and available. They are infusing more business acumen into our industry because of their professional working backgrounds.

New sources of pet grooming education are changing the profile of career seekers today. There are more vocational schools today than at any time in the past. Home study alternatives have made their mark too. Career seekers without access to local grooming schools and inabilities to travel have gone ahead and changed careers relying on home study for their entry-level training. Reputable vocational schools have added online home study courses followed by on-site internships. In other words, pet grooming educational opportunities are adapting to the new needs of today’s grooming career seekers.

Mobile grooming has increased the diversity of pet grooming too. Its unique appeal has been a key factor for many career seekers making the choice to become groomers. Typically they enjoy working alone and being their own boss. They love the mobility of being out and about and not at desk jobs. Perhaps the prospect of working at the same workstation in grooming shops or salons every day reminds them too much of previous desk jobs. Mobile grooming is also one of the easiest ways for many to become self-employed groomers. The startup costs for a mobile business are less than a commercial location if you don’t factor financing or buying a mobile vehicle. Add these factors to a passion to work with pets every day and the formula has resulted in the largest growing sector of the grooming industry. There are also groomers in urban areas such as New York City offering house call grooming without mobile conversion vehicles. They add even more character to our diversity.

Continued on the next page.